Politics, Power, and Influence: Defense Industries in the Post-Cold War

João Carlos Gonçalves Dos Reis

doi:10.3390/socsci10010010

João Carlos Gonçalves Dos Reis

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10010010

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Journal: Social Sciences	Publication Date: Jan 6, 2021
Citations: 9	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Universidade Lusófona, University of Aveiro

Abstract

The post-Cold War era is placing the defense industry at a crossroads. If, on the one hand, it is under great pressure to guarantee warlike efforts around the world, with tight budgets and uncertain lead-times, on the other hand, it is seen as a central instrument for national sovereignty and foreign policy. The purpose of this research is to report the state-of-the-art of the existing literature and explore the most relevant research areas in order to provide the conceptual basis for further empirical research. To do so, this study uses a preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis (PRISMA), which is an adequate technique as it allows one to discover concepts, ideas, and debates about the defense industry. The results evidenced three different approaches to the defense industry—integration, autarky, and domination. In that regard, we present several case studies in which the defense industry is used as an instrument of foreign policy or national sovereignty. Future studies may focus on empirical research to validate the theoretical findings or to identify variables that lead some defense industries to seek synergies, resorting to mergers and acquisitions, while other defense companies prefer to obtain State funds.

Highlights

In the post-Cold War period, the defense industry had a major influence on the hierarchy of State powers (Neuman 2010); the defense sector received little or no attention from scholars and professionals, which justifies this research
We developed two research questions (RQ), as follows: RQ1: How is the nature of war influencing the defense industry in the post-Cold War?
This strategy is adequate as it allows one to discover concepts, ideas, and debates about the defense industry in the post-Cold War, providing the needed state-of-the-art and conceptual basis to answer the research questions

Summary

Introduction

In the post-Cold War period, the defense industry had a major influence on the hierarchy of State powers (Neuman 2010); the defense sector received little or no attention from scholars and professionals, which justifies this research. Since the end of the Cold War, the defense industry changed, as the nature of war shifted from large arsenals to highly innovative and highly accurate weapon systems (PwC 2005). The defense industry had to adapt to survive in order to reduce costs and expand its influence, while, importantly, the State reduced its participation in sustaining defense research (Chin 2019). In some situations, replacing intergovernmental cooperation (Kurç and Neuman 2017). Further analysis showed that this transformation has the potential to influence the international politics, crisis situations, and armed conflicts (Neuman 2006). The security community seemed to be more interested in collaborating to respond to regional outbreaks of minor conflicts rather than preparing for conventional wars

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